Most Expensive Haunted Houses in the World
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It's the time of year where things are little more prone to going bump in the night.
Do you believe in ghosts? How about vengeful spirits and poltergeists?
Around the world, there are many tales of ghostly footsteps and glimpses of full-bodied apparitions. Some of those tales are attached to mansions, castles and palaces. This is where the top 1 percent of the spirit realm calls home.
50. The Mortician's Mansion
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Location: Dunsmuir, California
Bedrooms: 7
Bathrooms: 6
Square footage: 5,500+
Price: $93,000
Lore and legend: This the mansion that is said to have inspired the best-selling book, "The Mortician's Wife." The home used to house a mortuary and a mortician, who died at the kitchen table. His wife was so overwhelmed with grief she ran to her room and left the body untouched and decaying for weeks.
The home's previous owner, Brad Warner, gave an interview with realtor.com in 2015, saying he had fixed up the property and was looking to sell it for $899,000 to someone who could make it a "dead and breakfast."
He also claimed that spirits turned off his computer and snuffed out the fire in the fireplace, then turned his computer back on and relit the fire when he asked them to knock it off.
In 2018, the house sold for a mere $93,000. So what happened? "He looked like he renovated it, but not really," listing agent LuAnn Wiegele told realtor.com in a follow-up article. "He took out all the plumbing and appliances. He really left it in a mess."
Or maybe it was the ghosts, who figured that Warner wasn't going to give them their security deposit back.
49. The Whispers Estate
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Location: Mitchell, Indiana
Bedrooms: 4
Bathrooms: 2.5
Square footage: 3,700
Price: $130,000
Lore and legend: Want to hear some whispers while you (try to) sleep? Then the Whispers Estate in Mitchell, Indiana, has the nightmares you've been longing for.
Built in 1894, this estate was home to Dr. John and Jessie Gibbons, who adopted several orphans. Some of those orphans met horrible ends. A 10-year-old girl named Rachel set fire to the parlor and caught fire herself, then died. An infant named Elizabeth died from unknown causes in the master bedroom.
The current owners claim you can still hear or even see Rachel running through the house and faintly smell baby powder where Elizabeth died. Jessie died of pneumonia in the master bedroom; she supposedly still haunts the room to this day, hacking and coughing.
The Whispers Estate's website has a long list of what other ghostly phenomena allegedly occurs within this haunted mansion. It's currently under private ownership, but you can rent the whole dang thing out for $300 a weekend and conduct your own ghost tours.
They've even partnered with local Papa John's for cheap pizza to take on the ghost hunts! The spookiest thing might be the bathroom on Monday.
48. Turret House
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Location: Muskogee, Oklahoma
Bedrooms: 4
Bathrooms: 3
Square footage: 3,672
Price: $150,000
Lore and legend: This Queen Anne Victorian supposedly has walls stained with pools of blood and haunting music plays from empty rooms.
Not too much is known about the home, but one of its former owners, Susie Glidewell, claimed that she had no idea the place was haunted and spent 11 years fixing it up. In a 2007 interview, she told the Muskogee Phoenix that she couldn't find who the original owners were or when it was built (the old listing says 1935) and that she noticed ghostly activity while the house was being renovated.
The best claim? A "crying" plant that continued to drip water. Her cat eventually killed it.
47. Nicholas-Rand House
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Location: Indianapolis, Indiana
Bedrooms: 4
Bathrooms: 2.5
Square footage: 4,048
Price: $245,000
Lore and legend: The imposing Nicholas-Rand House is perhaps the most haunted mansion in all of Indiana.
In 1997, to save it from destruction, the house was moved from its original location a half-mile away. While covering the move, a reporter snapped a photo. When it was published in the paper, people believed the photo showed the vague outline of a child from the attic window. People now believe the ghost is from that of a little girl who was killed in an accident nearby.
Another ghost story draws from when the Nicholas-Rand House was a boarding home, and a man hanged himself in an upstairs bedroom. Yet another story claims the mansion was a stop on the Underground Railroad, and slaves burned to death in the basement. You can still hear them scream.
None of these stories have been verified, but they make a good story.
46. Franklin Castle
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Location: Cleveland, Ohio
Bedrooms: 4
Bathrooms: 4.5
Square footage: 6,356
Price: $260,000
Lore and legend: Hannes and Louise Tiedemann built this home in 1881. A decade after building the home, their 15-year-old daughter, Emma, died. All three Tiedemann children died in the house over the next few years, and Louise died from liver disease at the age of 57. By 1908, with the death of Hannes, the entire Tiedemann family was dead.
Today, the mansion is considered one of the most haunted places in America. There have been reports of footsteps, voices, doors opening and closing, and misplaced objects, and it's believed that the Tiedemann family lives there to this day.
The home was last purchased by a private buyer for $260,000 in 2011 and has undergone a major renovation. Let's hope they don't make the ghosts angry.
45. SK Pierce Mansion
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Location: Gardner, Massachusetts
Bedrooms: 10
Bathrooms: 2.5
Square footage: 6,661
Price: $315,000
Lore and legend: A wealthy furniture businessman, Sylvester Pierce, built this rambling mansion in 1875. His wife died of a bacterial infection a few weeks after moving in, according to the mansion's website, and then the family business crumbled during the Great Depression.
Sylvester's youngest son, Edward, had taken control of mansion and whatever was left of the business by the 1930s. Rumor has it, he turned the mansion into a boarding house, which attracted unsavory characters.
A prostitute is said to have been strangled here and an immigrant was said to have been burned to death via spontaneous combustion. A young boy is rumored to have drowned in the basement. Ghost activity is high, allegedly.
A man from New Jersey bought the SK Pierce Mansion in 2015 for $315,000. He fixed it up and turned it into a tourist attraction.
44. Uhli House
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Location: Silver City, New Mexico
Bedrooms: 5
Bathrooms: 3
Square footage: 6,031
Price: $351,500
Lore and legend: What's been called the Uhli House is a curious property in Silver City, New Mexico, that is said to be haunted, but there are no real stories about why or by whom.
Realtor.com says Stefan and Suzanna Uhli, who originally owned the 1890-built home, are most likely to still be hanging around. Stefan was a German immigrant and brickworker who crafted the "Uhli bricks" used in many of the town's adobe-style buildings.
For $351,500, you could own their home, or you could own an entire block for $1.383 million.
43. The Conjuring House
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Location: Harrisville, Rhode Island
Bedrooms: 3
Bathrooms: 2
Square footage: 3,109
Price: $439,000
Lore and legend: "The Conjuring" film in 2013 was incredibly popular and launched a whole "Conjuring" franchise. The film was based on real events — and those events all happened here, at this large, 184-year-old farmhouse in Rhode Island.
Famed paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren visited this home in the 1970s, attempting to find the source of dark and vengeful spirits. The surviving family members of the Perrons, who owned the house until 1980, still swear the story is true and back the film.
The spirit of Bathsheba Sherman, a suspected child killer and satanist, is said to have haunted the home until it was exorcised by the Warrens. Now, only friendly ghosts live there.
A couple purchased the Conjuring House for $439,000 in 2019 and have since made it available to book.
42. The Pillars Estate
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Location: Albion, New York
Bedrooms: 6
Bathrooms: 3 full, 3 half
Square footage: 7,228
Price: $450,000
Lore and legend: This glorious 1878-built Greek revival boasts a ghost child and a woman in white, who were supposedly activated when the home underwent an 11-year remodel in the 2000s and 2010s.
Allegedly, workers heard the voices of a child and even saw one peering through the basement window. The previous owner said the parlor's piano would play when no one was there.
One of the ghosts is believed to be Patricia Carr, who died in the parlor. However, the ghost is believed to be friendly. In fact, the home's previous owner and remodeler, Tony McMurtrie, believes Patricia is a friendly spirit who's just happy as a ghost in ectoplasm that her home has been restored to its former glory.
McMurtrie originally had the estate up for sale at $1 million in 2015, but it sold for just $450,000 in 2020.
41. Carleton Villa
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Location: Cape Vincent, New York
Bedrooms: 11
Bathrooms: N/A
Square footage: 15,000
Price: $495,000
Lore and legend: This imposing, 1894-built property is a castle on Carleton Island in Cape Vincent, New York. It has a curious history, but the jury is out on whether or not it's haunted — no one has lived there for over 90 years.
The crumbling mansion was built by Remington typewriter inventor William O. Wyckoff in 1894. But he was never able to enjoy his masterpiece. Wyckoff fell dead from a heart attack the first night he slept at the mansion. He was 60 years old. A year before that, his wife had died of cancer.
Wyckoff Mansion was left to William's only surviving son, Clarence. According to one report, poor investments left the Wyckoff's family coffers dry, and Clarence sold the house to General Electric in 1927. It has been sold on and off throughout the years but has remained nothing but a ghost of its former self.
40. Pink Palace
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Location: Louisville, Kentucky
Bedrooms: 6
Bathrooms: 4
Square footage: 4,170
Price: $525,000
Lore and legend: This castle was built in 1891 and used to be a gentlemen's club, but it has been pink since 1910, when the Woman's Christian Temperance Union took over and colored it pink — a signal that the days of hard boozing and prostitution were over.
We don't know if the current owners, who bought the home for $525,000 in 2019, will keep up the tradition. But they might, because the ghost hasn't objected.
The Pink Palace is said to be haunted by one of the castle's first owners, a tall, older chap named Avery. He likes to make sure the home's residents are kept safe. Once he barged into a woman's bathroom as she was taking a bath, causing her to jolt out of the tub. Seconds later, a concrete block smashed through the window and into the bathtub.
39. McRaven House
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Location: Vicksburg, Mississippi
Bedrooms: 3
Bathrooms: 1.5
Square footage: 3,200
Price: $575,000
Lore and legend: This Georgian revival in Vicksburg, Mississippi is a well-known haunted house with a trio of ghosts.
According to the McRaven House's website, they are named Mary Elizabeth Howard, John Bobb and Andrew Glass. Howard is supposed to be the most active. She died shortly after giving childbirth.
Bobb was a Confederate Civil War soldier who roams one of the balconies, and Glass was a highwayman who supposedly built McRaven House as a hideout.
38. Panola Hall
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Location: Eatonton, Georgia
Bedrooms: 6
Bathrooms: 5
Square footage: 6,504
Price: $590,000
Lore and legend: There are a couple of fun ghost stories about Panola Hall, both about an unnamed ghost the owners call Sylvia.
According to one story, a woman was getting ready on her wedding day. While fixing herself up, she fell into a trunk. Her parents walked into the room to check on her and, not seeing her, promptly decided she ran away, and then they walled off the room. That's some good parenting.
According to another legend, a visiting friend jumped off the balcony after hearing her husband died during the Civil War. OK, that one's not as fun.
The 1854 mansion sold in 2019 for $590,000.
37. The Amityville House
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Location: Amityville, New York
Bedrooms: 5
Bathrooms: 3.5
Square footage: 5,000
Price: $605,000
Lore and legend: The infamous Amityville House is where Ronald DeFeo Jr., brutally murdered his father, mother, and four siblings on Nov. 13, 1974. The photo above was taken the following night— the "High Hopes" sign has since been removed.
The house changed hands to George and Kathy Lutz, who, along with Jay Anson, cooked up a fake story on how the house was haunted by vengeful spirits. The bestselling book, "The Amityville Horror," and the subsequent movie became ingrained into pop culture.
The Amityville House sold for $605,000 in 2017, significantly less than its initial $850,000 asking price. Is it haunted? We know the book was a hoax, but this is one of the world's most notorious houses, haunted or not.
36. Charming Forge Mansion
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Location: Womelsdorf, Pennsylvania
Bedrooms: 7
Bathrooms: 3.5
Square footage: 7,821
Price: $650,000
Lore and legend: Charming Forge Mansion is a Georgian-style mansion erected in 1749. In 1763, William Henry Stiegel, a glassmaker and ironmaster, moved in and nicknamed it Charming Forge.
Numerous ghost stories belong to the 7,821-square-foot home and its 49-acre grounds. They include footsteps going up the stairs and a black cloud, which is believed to belong to a maid who died after her dress accidentally caught fire by the fireplace.
Charming Forge Mansion went up for sale in 2018 for $825,000 but ultimately sold for $650,000.
35. Starrett Mansion
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Location: Port Townsend, Washington
Bedrooms: 11
Bathrooms: 6
Square footage: 5,796
Price: $775,000
Lore and legend: Contractor George Starrett built this house for the love of his life, his wife Ann, in 1889. The couple, along with their longtime nanny and children, are said to still live in the house — albeit "live" might not be the best descriptor.
The mansion is now a bed and breakfast. The current owners purchased the mansion for $775,00 in 2017, after the rambling Victorian sat on the market for 12 years. The current owner claims he plugged in a shortwave radio shortly after moving in, and loud bursts of static noise occurred at 2 a.m. for two nights in a row.
Then he unplugged it.
34. Kimball Castle
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Location: Gilford, New Hampshire
Bedrooms: N/A
Bathrooms: N/A
Square footage: 6,000
Price: $799,000
Lore and legend: Railroad tycoon Benjamin Kimball built this castle in 1899 and lived there until his death in 1920. His daughter and heiress, Charlotte Kimball, lived here until she died in 1960. There's nothing weird about that, but when Charlotte died, "[s]he left behind a trust with hundreds of thousands of dollars that mysteriously vanished, and she left no clear vision for the castle and its sister buildings — built on 20 acres — in her will," according to the Concord Monitor.
After her death, the castle caretaker lived on the property and chased off trespassing kids by blasting them with rock salt from his shotgun. What makes for a better ghost house than an angry caretaker with a shotgun? There have been reports of a full-body apparition in the castle and the sound of horses in the broken-down stables, along with the noise of banging doors.
While we're not sure exactly how much this castle cost to build, it was built with local granite and imported materials from Europe and cost $50,000 in 1899. That's somewhere in the realm of $1.5 million today.
Kimball Castle was for sale for $799,000 in 2013, but it sat vacant for many years until 2018, when the estate was purchased for an undisclosed amount. The new owners are now trying to make it into a wedding venue.
33. Villa Acequia
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Location: Corrales, New Mexico
Bedrooms: 3
Bathrooms: 6
Square footage: 5,400
Price: $879,000
Lore and legend: Previously known as Perea Casa, this mansion was built around 1850 in Corrales, New Mexico, and has a few ghost stories.
One is of an old bald guy with a red handlebar mustache, thought to be the home's original owner, Manuel Antonio Perea. An owner from the 1890s allegedly had orange peels thrown at him which, according to legend, caused him to flee and leave all of his furniture behind.
Ghost hunters have visited the mansion, and people have reported cold spots and EMF (electromagnetic field) meters showing high activity. Spooky!
32. Lizzie Borden's Maplecroft Estate
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Location: Fall River, Massachusetts
Bedrooms: 7
Bathrooms: 3.5
Square footage: 3,953
Price: $890,000
Lore and legend: Lizzie Borden was the main suspect in the ax murder of her stepmother and father, but after courts acquitted her, she retired to this Queen Anne mansion. The 1887-built home isn't where the murders happened — that place is now a bed and breakfast/museum — but this historic property is believed to be haunted.
Borden called the home "Maplecroft" and moved in here with her sister Emma in 1893. The two attempted to live an isolated life. She didn't. School children frequently threw rocks at this house and taunted her from the street, while the press kept her acquittal fresh in the minds of Fall River residents.
Local residents believe the house to be haunted. If it is, it would certainly be a place to find Lizzie Borden.
31. Priestly House
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Location: Canton, Mississippi
Bedrooms: 4
Bathrooms: 4
Square footage: 5,252
Price: $899,000
Lore and legend: The Priestly House is a well-known haunted home to the residents of Canton, Mississippi. Phenomena here includes hot spots and candles falling from their holders. If there's still a piano, it'll play itself.
The otherworldly culprits? Dr. James Priestly and his wife, Susan, both of whom died in the 1852 Greek revival home. Although most people think it's just Susan who roams these grand halls, since she's the figure everyone attuned to the spirit world sees.
The Priestley family held on to the home until 1996. It's currently on the market.
30. Joshua Ward House
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Location: Salem, Massachusetts
Bedrooms: 11
Bathrooms: N/A
Square footage: N/A
Price: $900,000
Lore and legend: What is now The Merchant hotel used to be known as the Joshua Ward House, and it dates back to the Salem Witch Trials.
The Joshua Ward house is built on the land of a Salem sheriff named George Corwin. He ordered the execution of a man accused of witchcraft named Giles Corey — and it wasn't a simple execution. Corwin ordered his death via peine forte et dure, a type of punishment where planks are placed across the chest and heavier and heavier stones are added in increments. The idea is to force a confession.
in Corey's case, his tongue hung out of his mouth from the force, and Corwin pushed it back in with a stick. Legend says that Corey cursed the entire town of Salem with his last breath, although there's no evidence of that.
Built in 1784, the Joshua Ward House is considered the most haunted house in Salem, and that's a pretty big accomplishment. The mansion went on sale for $900,000 in 2014, although we can't find exactly how much the new owners paid for it.
29. Griffin House
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Location: New Orleans, Louisiana
Bedrooms: 3
Bathrooms: 2
Square footage: 3,170
Price: $950,000
Lore and legend: During the Civil War, the Griffin House (named after its original owner, Adam Griffin) was occupied by Union troops, who used it as a makeshift jail and a barracks. Its other occupants included two Confederate soldiers, who were jailed for looting (some sources say they were Confederate deserters wearing stolen Union uniforms).
Knowing that they were going to be put to death, the two men decided to commit suicide, and they did so by shooting one another in the attic.
The two ghosts are said to haunt this house today and can be heard stamping around in the attic and singing war songs throughout the house.
28. The Watcher House
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Location: Westfield, New Jersey
Bedrooms: 6
Bathrooms: 4
Square footage: 3,869
Price: $959,000
Lore and legend: What if the house isn't haunted by a ghost, but a stalker? This house, known as "The Watcher" house made headlines in 2015 after the family who bought the home for $1.4 million claimed they were receiving threatening letters.
"My grandfather watched the house in the 1920s, and my father watched in the 1960s. It is now my time. Do you need to fill the house with the young blood I requested? Once I know their names, I will call to them and draw them to me," one letter read.
Those owners, believing they had been sold a stalked bill of goods, sued the seller. The previous owners said the current owners were full of it, and made up the letters just so they could renege on the already-closed deal.
The Watcher must have been media-shy, since he skedaddled once the press picked up the story. But the family finally sold the house in 2019 for $959,000 — significantly less than what they paid for.
For their part, the family being watched told CNN they never lived in the house after they received the threatening mail.
27. Henderson Castle
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Location: Kalamazoo, Michigan
Bedrooms: 6
Bathrooms: 5.5
Square footage: 9,770
Price: $1.025 million
Lore and legend: This towering 115-year-old castle built by businessman Frank Henderson in Kalamazoo, Michigan is host to several ghosts — including a phantom dog.
According to paranormal investigators, one of the main ghosts is Clare Burleigh, a Spanish-American War vet who knew Henderson's son. There's "at least one" spirit of a nameless little girl, too, according to Michigan Live.
Investigators say they've heard voices come over their radio, and claim they found a framed picture with "Clare" written on it in the dust. One travel writer even said something tapped her on the arm while she was asleep, and woke her up.
Henderson Castle last sold for $1.025 million, and today it's an inn.
26. Hampton Lillibridge House
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Location: Savannah, Georgia
Bedrooms: 5
Bathrooms: 5
Square footage: 4,606
Price: $1.5 million
Lore and legend: After its original owners died, this 1796 Cape-Cod style house was turned into a boarding home. After that, a sailor hanged himself in one of the guest rooms and gave the home a bad reputation, where it was closed and sat vacant for years.
Then, Jim Williams bought the home in 1963 and restored it. Williams is the inspiration behind the main character in the nonfiction crime novel, "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" but the murders didn't take place here. Williams moved the house from its original location a few blocks away, but while doing so, the roof caved in and killed a worker.
Builders at the time reported to hear voices and feel ice-cold chills, as well as a ghost that looked like a man dressed in black. Williams is rumored to have an exorcism performed in the house, but it didn't work.
Today, the home is a private residence that sold for $1.5 million.
25. Loyd Hall Plantation
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Location: Cheneyville, Louisiana
Bedrooms: 8+
Bathrooms: N/A
Square footage: 31,000 (all 10 buildings)
Price: $1.527 million
Lore and legend: While we don't know exactly how many bedrooms and bathrooms are at Loyd Hall, we think there are a lot of them. The 200-year-old plantation has 10 buildings, including five cottages and a large eight-bedroom house.
Loyd Hall was built in 1816 or 1820 by William Loyd, who acted as a double agent for the Union in the Civil War, according to Town Talk. After discovering his treachery, Union soldiers tarred, feathered and hanged him on the property. He still walks the grounds, as do the ghosts of several other soldiers. They include:
- The ghost of a slave, who may have been murdered by intentional food poisoning. She carries the smell of food and coffee.
- A Union deserter who was shot in the attic. His blood stains are in the attic, and sometimes you can hear him playing the violin.
- Loyd's niece, who threw herself from the second-floor window after being left at the altar. She still likes to play the piano.
Loyd Hall went up for sale for $1.527 million in 2018, but does not appear to have sold. It's currently a bed and breakfast and event venue.
24. The Legally Haunted House
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Location: Nyack, New York
Bedrooms: 8
Bathrooms: 4.5
Square footage: 4,628
Price: $1.85 million
Lore and legend: This house isn't just rumored to be haunted. It has been deemed haunted in court.
In the 1970s and 1980s, Helen Ackley and her family owned this house, and they all knew it was haunted. She had talked about it to the local press and even Reader's Digest. Among her claims was that a ghost shook her daughter's bed every morning and left ghostly gifts in the form of disappearing baby rings.
But when it came time to sell in 1989, neither Ackley nor her real estate broker told the out-of-town buyer, Jeffrey Stambovsky, that the house was haunted. Stambovsky made a $32,500 down payment on the $650,000 house. But after learning from the locals that he was purchasing a not-so-empty home, he demanded his down payment back. He lost a trial court case, but appealed.
The case was settled at the appellate division of the New York Supreme Court, where three out of five justices ruled in favor of Stambovsky. The court ruled that the "defendant is estopped to deny their existence, and, as a matter of law, the house is haunted."
The court further argued that since everyone in town knew about the ghosts, which could indeed affect property value, the seller should have revealed their existence — it's not exactly something a home inspector is licensed to do.
23. Los Feliz Murder Mansion
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Location: Los Angeles, California
Bedrooms: 5
Bathrooms: 3.5
Square footage: 5,050
Price: $2.5 million
Lore and legend: The Los Feliz murder mansion has remained virtually untouched and under lock and key since a horrifying murder-suicide that occurred in 1959.
Dr. Harold Perelson beat his wife to death with a ball-peen hammer, then attempted to kill his 18-year-old daughter, but she escaped. By the time she escaped and the cops showed up, her father was dead, overdosed on Nembutal and tranquilizers. The murder occurred on Dec. 6. Locals say a Christmas tree with wrapped gifts tucked underneath remained there for decades.
No one knows exactly what made Perelson murder his wife, and the home sold a year later to a couple, Emily and Julian Enriquez, who only used the mansion as a storage area. The house was inherited by Enriquez's son, but he never stayed in the house nor made any changes.
Today, the house no longer has the Christmas tree or anything else. It has been taken down to the studs and was put on the market in 2016. It's currently pending a sale for $2.5 million. You'd be hard-pressed to find anyone in the area who doesn't think this house is haunted.
22. Rosegate House
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Location: New Orleans
Bedrooms: 6
Bathrooms: 2.5
Square footage: 8,342
Price: $2.72 million (estimate)
Lore and legend: Rosegate House is Anne Rice's old home in New Orleans' Garden District, a very wealthy and very haunted neighborhood in the Big Easy.
Rosegate House apparently has its own ghost as well, namely a one Pamela Starr Crapp, who was spotted in the house numerous times in the 1950s, according to Atlas Obscura.
21. Loftus Hall
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Location: Hook Head, County Wexford, Ireland
Bedrooms: 22
Bathrooms: N/A
Square footage: 27,000
Price: $2.87 million
Lore and legend: None other than Satan himself is said to have visited Loftus Hall, a 27,000-square-foot country house with origins dating back to 1350.
According to legend, during one dark and stormy night, a dark stranger came to the mansion on horseback. He told the family his ship had just crashed into the harbor and was seeking shelter. The family who lived there at the time — the Tottenham Family — invited him inside. Their daughter, Anne, was taken by the handsome fellow.
During a game of cards, Anne dropped a card on the floor. Bending down to retrieve it, she saw a pair of cloven hooves for feet. The stranger then disappeared and shot through the roof in a ball of flames. Anne was driven mad and locked herself in her room, then died two years later. Her ghost is said to still haunt those halls.
For those who want to own a place that Satan sojourned, Loftus Hall is on the market for €2.5 million or $2.87 million.
20. Campbell Castle
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Location: Wichita, Kansas
Bedrooms: 16
Bathrooms: 16
Square footage: 11,404
Price: $3 million+
Lore and legend: Colonel Burton Harvey Campbell and his wife, Ellen, built this castle in 1886, reportedly as a replica of a castle from Scotland.
To complete the European feel, the Campbells imported oodles of European antiques and fixtures salvaged from Europe, including the main staircase.
Legend has it that the ghosts who haunt this joint aren't the Campbells, but spirits attached to the goods shipped overseas.
19. Battery Carriage House
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Location: Charleston, South Carolina
Bedrooms: 17
Bathrooms: 18
Square footage: 15,669
Price: $3.416 million
Lore and legend: The Battery Carriage House, built in 1843, was constructed as a mansion and was owned by various wealthy South Carolina families.
The ghosts that inhabit this massive inn are apparently from a time just after the Civil War. The most haunted room in the house is reportedly Room 8, where a headless torso likes to wake people up in the middle of the night.
There's also a friendly ghost in Room 10 who likes to sleep in the bed. Maybe he'll do a little more if you play your Ouija board right.
The inn last sold for $3,415,500 in 2018.
18. Lefferts-Laidlaw House
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Location: Brooklyn, New York
Bedrooms: 4
Bathrooms: 3
Square footage: 2,256
Price: $3.42 million
Lore and legend: This curious mansion in Brooklyn's claim to haunted fame comes from a New York Times article (now paywalled) penned on Dec. 20, 1878. According to the article — a summary of it can be read here — one Edward F. Smith owned the home at the time. He was besieged by banging and rattling doors and a ringing doorbell, so he called the police.
The cops couldn't figure out what was happening and couldn't pin the mischief on any wayward youths, so they surrounded the perimeter of the house. And then the ghost threw a brick through the dining room window.
Not a fan of cops, this one.
The mansion is up for grabs at $3.42 million.
17. The LaLaurie Mansion
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Location: New Orleans, Louisiana
Bedrooms: 6
Bathrooms: 7
Square footage: 10,284
Price: $3.5 million
Lore and legend: Once owned by Nicholas Cage, the LaLaurie mansion was the site of grisly occurrences. Madame LaLaurie bought the three-story home in 1831 for $33,750. She and her husband conducted cruel experiments and tortured slaves in secret here for several years.
In 1834, a 12-year-old child, attempting to flee from Madame LaLaurie, jumped to her death from the third floor. Later, a fire broke out. Firefighters and townsfolk discovered a 70-year-old slave woman chained to the stove (she had set the fire). Upon investigation, several other slaves, all having been mutilated or wearing torture devices, were found.
The LaLauries were run out of New Orleans by an angry mob, but they were able to safely escape to Paris.
Cage auctioned it for $4.5 million in 2009 to Regions Bank. The house is now in private ownership, with no records on how much it's actually worth. Chances are, it's worth double that price, given New Orleans' real estate market is much healthier today.
16. Devizes Castle
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Location: Devizes, Wiltshire, England
Bedrooms: 10
Bathrooms: 4
Square footage: 9,117
Price: $3.54 million
Lore and legend: Devizes Castle dates back to the 12th century, and that's a lot of time for a ghost to get attached to this place — or at least more than enough time for someone to cook up a good ghost story.
Some people say there's a woman in white wandering the long corridors. This woman is thought to be Lady Isabella, Richard II's second queen, who fell in love with a knight. When the king discovered the affair, he had the knight executed and bricked up Isabella within the walls of the basement.
Additionally, there's a tall cavalier ghost who can be heard rushing up and down the main stairwell, and a disembodied male voice coming from one of the home's many bedrooms.
Devizes Castle is on the market for £2.75 million, which equals around $3.53 million.
15. Villa Paula
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Location: Miami, Florida
Bedrooms: 10
Bathrooms: 2
Square footage: 2,522
Price: $4.5 million
Lore and legend: Villa Paula used to be the house of a Cuban consul named Domingo Milord. He lived here with his wife, Paula, in 1927, and christened the home after his wife. Paula had to get her leg amputated a few years after she moved in. Later, she died from complications from the surgery.
Domingo loved her so much he supposedly buried Paula in a concrete tomb in the backyard. In the 1980s, reports of a one-legged ghost wandering the hallways made it to the press. Homeowners during that time said they could smell fresh-brewed coffee and hear the sound of piano music — coffee and playing piano were two things Paula loved to do.
Villa Paula went on the market in 2019 for $4.5 million, but it did not appear to sell.
14. John Sowden House
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Location: Los Angeles, California
Bedrooms: 4
Bathrooms: 4.5+
Square footage: 5,600
Price: $4.7 million
Lore and legend: Frank Lloyd Wright's son, Lloyd Wright, built the Mayan temple-like, menacing-yet-beautiful Sowden House in 1926.
Things got dark when Dr. George Hodel moved into the home in 1945. Hodel threw wild, drug-infused sex parties in his bedroom and beat his son in the basement. Hodel became the suspect of murdering Elizabeth Short, murdering his secretary and raping his own daughter.
After Hodel died in 1999, his son, Steve, a retired LAPD detective, became convinced that his father was the Black Dahlia killer. Steve even believes a cadaver dog found evidence of remains in the basement, but no excavations have yet been made.
Many believe the Sowden House is cursed by spirits. The "Ghost Adventures" crew visited the Sowden house and experienced some otherworldly energy.
In 2018, CBD entrepreneur Dan Goldfarb bought the home for $4.7 million.
13. The Schweppe Mansion
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Location: Lake Forest, Illinois
Bedrooms: 10
Bathrooms: 11
Square footage: 24,500
Price: $5 million
Lore and legend: The Schweppe Mansion is a sweeping Gothic mansion with 28 rooms spread out over 24,500 square feet. The mansion was a wedding gift from Marshall Field president John G. Shedd, who bequeathed the mansion to Laura and Charles Schweppe in 1917.
Laura had a heart attack and died in 1937. Then, four years later, Charles shot himself in the head in his bedroom at the age of 60. A suicide note simply read, "I've been awake all night. It's been terrible." The house is said to be haunted by Charles and his servants.
The Schweppe Mansion has been on and off the market for a decade, until it finally sold for just $5 million in 2020.
12. Pittock Mansion
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Location: Portland, Oregon
Bedrooms: 5 (46 rooms total)
Bathrooms: N/A
Square footage: 16,000
Price: $6 million-$8 million+
Lore and legend: Pittock Mansion is one of the most famous places in the city of Portland and all of Oregon. Built by newspaper magnate Henry Pittock and his wife, Georgiana, in 1914, the house remained in the Pittock family until 1964, when the city bought the French Renaissance-style home for just $225,000.
But the mansion is so expensive in upkeep, requiring $6 million to $8 million in repairs by 2006, that the city passed it off to the Pittock Mansion Society.
But enough about the money. What about the ghosts? Some believe Pittock Mansion is still haunted by Henry and Georgiana. Georgiana, who loved to tend the gardens, is said to carry the smell of roses with her. Henry might shut a door or a window here or there, but both are believed to be friendly ghosts happy to show off their home to visitors.
11. The Ozzie and Harriet House
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Location: Los Angeles, California
Bedrooms: 5
Bathrooms: 7
Square footage: 5,283
Price: $6.5 million
Lore and legend: The real-life house of Ozzie and Harriet Nelson, which was used as a model for the stage sets for "The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet," may have some supernatural adventures for ghost hunters. Ozzie died in the home's master bedroom in 1975, and ever since, there have been reports of ghostly activity.
In 2013, the home's listing agent said previous owners have been disturbed by locked doors becoming unlocked, ghost kids playing in the backyard, and Ozzie's model train — which has been passed down from homeowner to homeowner — turns on in the middle of the night.
"Wet Hot American Summer" star Chris Meloni bought the home in 2014 for $5.25 million. He's now selling it for $6.5 million.
10. Captain Lord Mansion
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Location: Kennebunkport, Maine
Bedrooms: 16
Bathrooms: 16
Square footage: 25,000
Price: $6.9 million
Lore and legend: The Captain Lord Mansion was built in 1814 by a merchant and captain named Nathaniel Lord. Unable to set sail due to a British blockade during the War of 1812, Lord figured he would show off his wealth and build the biggest mansion in town. And so he did. And then he died one year after the house was constructed. He was 39 years old.
But his ghost isn't the one that haunts this three-story Federal building. It's the ghost of his wife, Phebe, who lived there for 50 years. Phebe's spirit is believed to be the apparition wearing Victorian clothing who sometimes can be seen in the Lincoln bedroom. Or perhaps it's someone else — the mansion remained in the Lord family for seven generations.
Today, the Captain Lord Mansion is an inn. It was last on sale for $6.9 million.
9. Mercer House
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Location: Savannah, Georgia
Bedrooms: N/A
Bathrooms: N/A
Square footage: 7,000
Price: $7 million
Lore and legend: The Mercer House is the home where wealthy antiques dealer and historic preservationist Jim Williams shot and killed his lover, 21-year-old Danny Hansford. Williams was acquitted of the murder after four trials. The details of the crime and can be read about in John Berendt's book, "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil," and the 1997 movie of the same name.
Was it self-defense or murder? It's impossible to say, but it's not the only death that occurred at Mercer House. Williams died less than a year after his acquittal from pneumonia and heart failure at the age of 59, and supposedly an 11-year-old boy died in 1969 after falling from the roof and becoming impaled by the iron fence below.
Mercer House, which is now a museum, is said to be haunted by the spirits of those three people.
8. Kreischer House
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Location: Staten Island, New York
Bedrooms: 7
Bathrooms: 3
Square footage: 4,500
Price: $9.5 million
Lore and legend: The Kreischer house has a long and violent history, beginning with Edward B. Kreischer.
Kreischer owned the home in the late 19th century, having inherited the 1885-built home from his father, Balthasar Kreischer, who built the house. Edward shot himself in the head off the property, and has been said to haunt the residence.
In 2005, the home was the site of a grisly Bonanno mob family killing, where the home's caretaker, Joseph Young, along with three other gangsters, drowned a man in the pool and then hacked him to pieces in the kitchen.
7. Sword Gate
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Location: Charleston, North Carolina
Bedrooms: 9
Bathrooms: 13.5+
Square footage: 17,142
Price: $10 million
Lore and legend: Sword Gate is a 200-year-old mansion steeped in mystery. According to local lore, Sword Gate used to be a girls' finishing school called Madame Talvande's French School for Young Ladies. Nearby on Edisto Island, a girl named Maria fell hopelessly in love with a Yankee named George. But Maria's father disapproved of the relationship and sent Maria to Madame Talvande's school.
Even though Madame Talvande had a reputation for being strict and watchful, even she couldn't keep the two young lovers apart. Maria escaped from the school one night, and the two were married in a nearby church.
This was a huge scandal, and Madame Talvande went a bit mad. She built high walls around the house and glued broken glass to their tops. Madame Talvande is said to haunt Sword Gate, peering from the windows, waiting for someone to try and dare make an escape again.
After sitting on the market for over a decade, Sword Gate sold for $10 million in 2020, less than half of its original asking price of $23 million in 2009.
6. Lynnewood Hall
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Location: Elkins Park, Pennsylvania
Bedrooms: 55
Bathrooms: 20
Square footage: 70,000
Price: $11 million
Lore and legend: Significantly larger than the White House, the 1897-built Lynnewood Hall is an astonishingly large mansion from the Gilded Age. It also has a spooky (and intriguing) history.
Lynnewood Hall was originally built for A.B. Widner, who was one of the richest Americans in history at the time of his death. Peter was an investor in the International Mercantile Marine, which owned the RMS Titanic.
Peter's son George and George's wife, Eleanor, and their son, Harry, were on the Titanic. Harry Elkins and George drowned, while Eleanor and her maid escaped on a lifeboat reserved for women. Grief stricken, Peter died three years later at Lynnewood Hall.
Legend has it that the Widner family still roams the home's 70,000 square feet.
Lynnewood Hall has since fallen into disrepair and is owned by the First Korean Church of New York. They tried selling it for $11 million in 2019. It has since been taken off the market.
5. The Biltmore Estate
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Location: Asheville, North Carolina
Bedrooms: 33
Bathrooms: 43
Square footage: 175,000
Price: $37 million (house only)
Lore and legend: Built by the famed Vanderbilt family in the late 19th century, the Vanderbilt Estate is one of the biggest houses in America. It's also one of the most haunted.
George Washington Vanderbilt, the home's first owner, had this estate custom built for him when he was just 26 years old. One of his favorite rooms in the house is the library, where he would cozy up with a book when storms rolled in. He's said to haunt the area now, and can be spotted when a storm is on the horizon.
His wife, Edith, is also believed to haunt the estate with her beloved. She can sometimes be heard whispering "George."
4. Dracula's Castle/Bran Castle
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Location: Romania
Bedrooms: N/A (57 rooms total)
Bathrooms: N/A
Square footage: 10,000
Price: $80 million
Lore and legend: This fortress atop the hills of Romania on the Transylvania side of the border is commonly called "Dracula's Castle," as in the place where Bram Stoker housed his Dracula.
Stoker never visited Romania, although it's believed that, during his studies of the region, he found information about a castle in the area that may have been based on Bran Castle.
The 13th-century castle is now a tourist trap, and was put on the market for $80 million in 2014, although there were no takers.
3. Winchester Mystery House
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Location: San Jose, California
Bedrooms: 40
Bathrooms: 13
Square footage: 24,000
Price: It cost $5.5 million to build from 1884 to 1922 ($83.6 million today).
Lore and legend: In 1885, Sarah Winchester, heir to half of the Winchester Repeating Arms Company, moved from Connecticut to California following the untimely death of her husband. It wasn't the only tragedy in her life. She was still grieving from the loss of her infant daughter, who died from marasmus 15 years before her husband passed.
Legend has it that a medium told Sarah she was being haunted by angry spirits murdered by Winchester rifles. To appease the ghosts — and to confuse them — she continually built onto an unfinished cottage in San Jose, California, for years. The house was never finished. By the time of her death, the mansion had 160 rooms, 10,000 panes of glass, 17 chimneys and 47 fireplaces.
At one point, it was seven stories tall, but an earthquake ruined several floors. One theory is that Sarah wasn't trying to avoid ghosts, but instead had the ruined rooms sealed away, creating passages to nowhere.
But even if she weren't running from ghosts, why build something so strange? Shortly after Sarah died, the house sold at auction for a mere $135,000, even though it cost around $5.5 million to build (that's about $83.6 million in today's money). Today, the house is a tourist attraction.
2. The White House
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Location: Washington, D.C.
Bedrooms: N/A (135 rooms total)
Bathrooms: 35
Square footage: 55,000
Price: $400 million
Lore and legend: What ghouls lurk in the White House? On the paranormal side, there are many accounts of ghosts lurking in the White House, including one from Harry S. Truman.
Abraham Lincoln reportedly received visits from his dead son and later haunted the White House after his assassination.
Others say they could hear Thomas Jefferson playing violin and Andrew Jackson cursing.
1. Buckingham Palace
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Location: London, England
Bedrooms: 240
Bathrooms: 78
Square footage: 828,820
Price: $2 billion-$5 billion
Lore and legend: Buckingham Palace, one of the most impressive places in the entire world, is said to have some otherworldly guests.
Apparently, there's the spirit of a monk in a brown cowl who wanders the grounds, a leftover soul from a monastery that used to be on the palace's site.
Additionally, King Edward VII's private secretary, John Gwynne, committed suicide in a first-floor office by shooting himself, and his spirit is said to haunt that room — and sometimes they can hear the gunshot.
Related:Most Expensive Homes in the World